Few people grow up anticipating running for public office. But at no time in my life could I ever have predicted five years hence where I would be. Upon retiring to my native Green County I soon found myself on the Monroe School Board. Shortly after that Monroe Town Chair Allie Mayer appointed me to the Monroe Township Smart Growth Committee, and Governor Doyle appointed me to the Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

In becoming enmeshed in local civic affairs, it became evident that there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the legislative arena. Here is a brief list:

• K-12 Funding Our school districts should not be driven to referenda every four or five years just to maintain existing programs. The state limits revenue increases to 2.5 percent. Costs increase by 4 percent. Thus, even with the most prudent management, school districts are driven to divisive referenda. The K-12 funding formula must be revised in a way that takes pressure off local property taxes. This can be accomplished by closing tax loopholes.

• Reforming Our Tax System Citizens realized that we have to pay taxes to finance public services such as education, streets and roads, public health and safety and the rest of it. But we like to be assured that every beneficiary of public services, including our corporate citizens, pay their share for these services. We have too many loopholes that allow corporations to evade paying their fair share. An estimated $600 million is not paid by corporations due to legal loopholes exploited by corporations in Wisconsin. Every dollar avoided by a corporation increases the burden to the rest of us. These tax loopholes must be closed.

• Affordable Health Care The United States is the only “advanced” economy that does not offer some form of universal health care. The increasing burden of health care costs should be addressed at the federal level. But since it is not, it must be addressed at the state level. An ideal system would be a single payer system not tied to employment. Some version of the previously proposed “Healthy Wisconsin” plan should be enacted to ensure that every Wisconsin citizen has access to an affordable health care package. This would not only be the right thing to do for our citizens, but would take the burden off small business and increase the competitiveness of all Wisconsin business enterprises.

• Campaign Finance Reform Many people are disgusted with the tawdry process of electing our public officials. Our state Supreme Court justices should not be subjected to this process that includes needing to raise vast sums of money. We need to enact a system of public financing these elections, or adopt a merit system.

• Decennial Redistricting Every ten years, congressional and legislative districts are redrawn to account for shifts in population and to maintain approximately equal population numbers in each district. This is done by existing office holders, with the perverse result that representatives select their constituents instead of citizens selecting their representatives. The net result is relative safe and uncompetitive seats that result in turn with increased partisanship and legislative inaction.